Link to article: CNN
The NSA won a victory in court after a series of setbacks over the legality and usefulness of its massive data collection program. A federal judge in New York ruled that NSA's bulk collection of data on almost every phone call made in the U.S. is legal.
A judge who ruled on the case a week ago was very much opposed against the NSA's bulk collection program calling it "almost Orwellian" and likely unconstitutional. The term Orwellian is used as an adjective to describe a situation that is destructive to the welfare of a free, open society.
I would agree with the latter judge in saying that this program is "almost Orwellian". I don't believe that it is necessary to be snooping around everyone's cell phone's looking for a suspecting terrorist. It is an irrational and arbitrary invasion of privacy, and I believe it infringes upon our Fourth Amendment rights over our a degree of privacy. The controversy over it's usefulness is just as monumental as the controversy over its legality. The real assumed life threatening terrorists don't live in the United States. We spend so much resources and willingly give up our liberties in a search for terrorists that are in America, only to scantly find a few petty, probable suspects.
If you play the numbers game, it just doesn't make sense fight terrorism this way. My question is, cant our war on terror be over yet? We've played the big bad wolf long enough haven't we? What is the real threat we face with terrorist groups today? If there really is a major threat, I could understand the desire for passing a Patriot Act or the NSA's bulk collection program. I also understand there are well intended reasons in watching and suppressing potentially violent terrorist groups, but I think our country is going overboard with the mass surveillance and data collection over America's citizens. So while we may have well-intended reasons for such programs, I believe it is detrimental to our free, open society, and such programs should not be passed unless under more threatening circumstances.
I agree, our government is going a little overboard in a way that seems like it is infringing on our rights, even if their actions were ruled constitutional. Personally, I feel somewhat creeped out knowing that my calls could be collected. Our right to privacy is one that I am not willing to give up.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the NSA's actions are constitutional, but I do think that the threat of terrorism is still very real and is present in the United States. I don't think we should stop the war on terror nor can we. There are real people out there (some of which I believe are in the US) that want to hurt the United States. I don't know how far the government should be allowed to go, but I think that we do need some terrorist investigating because I think there are terrorists.
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